Graffiti and litter removal were among the jobs of a ‘cleansing hit squad’ in Plymouth.
A new, ‘one-hour rapid response’ clean team is funded in part by 540 city centre businesses.
The seven-strong team will be managed by the City Centre Company as part of Plymouth’s newly created Business Improvement District (BID). The BID, which was created in March after a postal ballot of every city centre business, involves retailers paying an annual levy, over five years, to fund major city centre improvement projects.
The rapid response clean team will operate seven days a week responding to any cleansing issue within one hour including litter removal, emptying bins, power washing, graffiti and fly posting removal, fly tipping and maintenance. The initial focus of the team’s work was a deep spring clean of the city centre.
The clean team have been issued with a specially designed and highly visible red uniform to ensure accessibility to retailers and shoppers. The City Council’s Highways and Parks operatives will also wear the new uniform. The funding for the clean team is a partnership between the City Council and city centre businesses, which are uniquely funding two members of the clean team. The day-to-day management of the clean team will now be down to the City Centre Company.
Duncan Currall, Chairman of Plymouth City Centre Company said, “A massive 77 per cent of businesses voted in favour of contributing additional funding towards the newly established BID with the cleanliness of the city centre clearly identified by shoppers and retailers as a top priority. We now intend, in partnership with the City Council, to ensure that the city centre is as clean as possible at all times delivering a much improved shopping experience.”
Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council said, “The City Council has supported the BID throughout the process and I am absolutely delighted that we can now play such a major role in assisting the City Centre Company to deliver this innovative clean team. There are very few city centres or even shopping malls in the UK that can offer such a service and the results will speak for themselves with a much more pleasant shopping experience.”
David Draffan, Managing Director of Plymouth City Centre Company said: “In taking a zero tolerance approach to litter and cleansing we will lift Plymouth’s shopping experience seven days a week. City centres must now compete on equal terms with covered out of town shopping centres and the environment must be just as clean. This is exactly what we have set out to do.”
